Trump Holds Disaster Presser on Venezuela Invasion

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2:24Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump just held a press conference following the United States invasion of Venezuela. This press conference was an absolute disaster. Donald Trump said that the United States will now be in charge and will be running Venezuela. Donald Trump again said the reason the United States invaded Venezuela is we wanted to take their oil, and now our big, beautiful oil companies will take control of the Venezuelan oil, which Donald Trump says was stolen from the United States. Donald Trump also says that Maria Corina Machado, the main opposition leader in Venezuela, does not have the support of the Venezuelan people, and she should not be running the country.

3:10Ben Meiselas:Let me break down what just took place at this disastrous press conference at Mar-a-Lago following the United States invasion of Venezuela. Here, Donald Trump says the United States will be running Venezuela. Here, play this clip. We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about.

3:57Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump says our very large United States oil companies will be going in to seize the infrastructure there. Here, play this clip. As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place. we're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country. He then randomly starts talking about saving Los Angeles and that Los Angeles would be destroyed if it wasn't for Donald Trump.

4:51Ben Meiselas:He is a deranged lunatic. Here, play this clip. And likewise, Los Angeles, where we saved Los Angeles early on, where the head of the police department made a statement that if the federal government didn't come in, we would have lost Los Angeles. That's after long after the fires. That's when they had the riots in Los Angeles. We did a great job. Got no credit for it whatsoever, but that's OK. It doesn't matter. We don't need the credit. Then Donald Trump says that the Monroe Doctrine, which says the United States must dominate the Western Hemisphere, will now be called the Donro Doctrine. And the United States will be using force all across the Western Hemisphere.

5:31Ben Meiselas:I will show you some other clips where he goes on to threaten Colombia, where he goes on to threaten Cuba. But here is what he says about the Donro Doctrine. Here, play this clip. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Don Road Doctrine. I don't know. It's Monroe Doctrine. We sort of forgot about it. It was very important, but we forgot about it. We don't forget about it anymore. Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again. won't happen. And Donald Trump says that the invasion of Venezuela and the invasion that may take place of other countries in Latin America are core to national security, like tariffs.

6:25Ben Meiselas:Here play this clip. Far greater dominance right now. Everyone's coming back to us. The future will be determined by the ability to protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security. These are core to our national security. Just like tariffs are, they've made our country rich and they've made our national security strong, stronger than ever before. But these are the iron laws that have always determined global power. And we're going to keep it that way. Donald Trump says that he's not afraid to put United States troops on the ground and put boots on the ground. And he said there were already boots on the ground during the invasion.

7:13Ben Meiselas:Here play this clip.

7:17President, does the U.S. running the country mean that U.S. troops will be on the ground? How will that work? Well, you know, they always say boots on the ground. So we're not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level, actually. We're not afraid of it. We don't mind saying it, but we're going to make sure that that country is run properly. We're not doing this in vain. This is a very dangerous attack. This is an attack that could have gone very, very badly.

7:44Ben Meiselas:So a reporter asked Donald Trump, so who is in charge of Venezuela right now? Play this clip. Mr. President, you said that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela. So who's in power right now? Well, we're going to be running it with a group and we're going to make sure it's run properly. We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It'll be paid for by the oil companies directly. They will be reimbursed for what they're doing, but that's going to be paid. And we're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be. As you know, it was just a minor flow. It was actually a minor flow for what they have.

8:18Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump threatens the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, play this clip. Mr. President, so Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a couple of weeks ago, he said he's got to watch his ass. And today he said he's not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation. So just what your message is. Well, he has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He's making cocaine. They're sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his ass. Then Donald Trump threatens the leadership of Cuba. Play this clip.

8:53Yes, sir. Please go ahead. Is there a message here for Cuba and Diaz Canal? Well, Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years. And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing.

9:15Ben Meiselas:So a reporter then asked Donald Trump, so who's actually going to be running Venezuela? Who are the people? Notably, I'll show you a clip in a little bit where Donald Trump says not Maria Corrino Machado, the main opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, whether it's because Donald Trump is jealous that she won the Nobel Peace Prize or Trump just wants Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth and himself to run it. But Donald Trump says it's the group of people standing behind me. Play this clip. Can you explain the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country? Are you going to designate a U.S.

9:51official to coordinate? It's all being done right now. We're designating people. We're talking to people. We're designating various people, and we're going to let you know who those people are. What's the group you mentioned that would run Venezuela? Well, it's largely going to be, for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it. We're going to be bringing it back. It's a dead, you know, I talk about a dead country. A year and a half ago, we were a dead country. Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're a country doing better than any country anywhere in the world.

10:23Ben Meiselas:And then one of the people standing behind him, the totally incompetent and inept Pete Hegseth starts to speak. And he goes, you know, Maduro, he effed around and he found out. Nicolas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance. Until they didn't and until he didn't. He effed around and he found out. And then throughout this press conference, Donald Trump appeared to be sleeping when General Dan Kane was speaking. Watch what Donald Trump was doing. Play this clip. Indicted persons on board and both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS Uajima. And Rubio speaks, Secretary of State, and he says that this was not the kind of mission, he says, that you would ever go to Congress for.

11:12Ben Meiselas:He goes, this was like a law enforcement operation. And what took place was just arresting a criminal. What are you talking about? You invaded Venezuela. And now you're saying you want to run the country of 28 million people. Yeah, that requires congressional authorization. And this invasion was patently unlawful. Listen to what Rubio says. The kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for a number of days. So it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.

11:47But it's largely a law enforcement function. Remember, at the end of the day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice. And the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job. Now, there are broader policy implications here, but it's just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission. Plus, if I could add one thing to that. Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good if they leaked.

12:15Ben Meiselas:Next, a reporter asks Donald Trump, well, what about China, Russia, Iran, who have interests in Venezuela? How are you now going to deal with this if you claim the United States is running Venezuela? And Donald Trump's like, well, we will sell them oil, I guess. And they want our business and we will now be seizing Venezuelan oil so we can deal with it that way. China, Russia, and Iran have interests in Venezuela. How does this operation affect your relationships with them when it comes to the oil and drugs? Well, in terms of China and Russia, well, Russia, when we get things straightened out, but in terms of other countries that want oil, we're in the oil business.

12:54We're going to sell it to them. We're not going to say we're not going to go there. In other words, we'll be selling oil probably in much larger doses because they couldn't produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad. So we'll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now. But I would say many more will come.

13:14Ben Meiselas:This is where Donald Trump talks about Machado, the main opposition leader, and says she's a very nice lady, but people don't respect her in Venezuela. She's the main opposition leader in Venezuela. This is the lady who praised Donald Trump. And, you know, she put out a message a few hours back saying, Venezuela, the hour of freedom has arrived. Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power. That's what the main opposition leader said. And Donald Trump just undercut her. Watch this. Here, play this clip. Are you less aware of the location of opposition leader Machado? And have you been in contact with her?

13:52No. We haven't.

14:00I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect.

14:09Ben Meiselas:Wow. Then Donald Trump says that in addition, Venezuela seized American oil. And that's one of the pretexts that they took our oil. It's like Putin, right? They stole our land. everything Venezuela stole our oil and we have now a border where nobody gets through in addition Venezuela unilaterally seized and stole American oil American assets and American platforms costing us billions and billions of dollars they did this a while ago but we never had a president that did anything about it they took all of our property it was our property we built it and we never had a president that decided to do anything about it.

14:55Instead, they fought wars that were 10 ,000 miles away. We built Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations, and they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country. considered the largest theft of property in the history of our country. Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies, and we didn't do anything about it. I would have done something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people or drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere.

15:41That's what they did.

15:41Ben Meiselas:Well, there you have it, folks. What a disastrous press conference that just unfolded. We will keep you posted every step of the way. Now hit subscribe and let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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